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Josephus saves a number of remarkable tales that deserve the most notable of his account of Alexander and the Jews, and the so-called Tales of the Tobiads in his Jewish Antiquities. Josephus set out to give a complete history of the Jewish people in Jewish Antiquities, from their earliest beginnings to his own day. With summaries and paraphrases of Jewish literary works, he seeks to harmonize Jewish literary traditions, both biblical and not, with Greek historical traditions and conventions, placing each of his Jewish sources in a linear chronological context, correlating this chronology with...

Josephus saves a number of remarkable tales that deserve the most notable of his account of Alexander and the Jews, and the so-called Tales of the Tobiads in his Jewish Antiquities. Josephus set out to give a complete history of the Jewish people in Jewish Antiquities, from their earliest beginnings to his own day. With summaries and paraphrases of Jewish literary works, he seeks to harmonize Jewish literary traditions, both biblical and not, with Greek historical traditions and conventions, placing each of his Jewish sources in a linear chronological context, correlating this chronology with that of the Greeks, and incorporating additional material where appropriate. Many of Josephus's sources for the Hellenistic period, however, are unfortunately now lost, and can only make inferences about their nature based on Josephus's narrative, which is always a dangerous procedure. Such is the case with Josephus's accounts of Alexander's visit to Jerusalem and of the adventures of the Tobiad family.